The present invention relates to a spinning reel, particularly for a fishing reel, provided with a mechanism smoothly movable or slidable in an axial direction of a spool shaft.
In general, there is widely known a spinning reel for winding up a fishing line by rotating a rotational frame of the reel and moving a spool reciprocally in a rotation axis direction of the rotational frame.
FIG. 53 shows one example of a conventional spinning reel, in which reference numeral 201 denotes a body casing, i.e. reel body, and a handle shaft 202 is mounted to the body casing 201 to be rotatable. A coupling gear 203 is secured to the handle shaft 202, and the coupling gear 203 is engaged with an oscillator gear 204 rotatably mounted to the body casing 201. A pin 205 engaged with a slot 206a formed to an oscillator 206 is provided for the oscillator gear 204. Secured to the oscillator 206 is a spool shaft 208 having a front end to which a spool 208 is mounted.
When the spinning reel of the structure described above is operated by gripping and rotating a handle lever 209 to rotate the handle shaft 202, the coupling gear 203 mounted to the handle shaft 202 is also rotated, thus the oscillator gear 204 being rotated, thereby moving the pin 205 along the slot 206a. In this manner, the oscillator 206 and, hence, the spool shaft 207 is moved reciprocally in a longitudinal direction, i.e. bilateral direction in FIG. 53.
However, according to the above prior art structure, the spool shaft does not perform a uniform reciprocal motion and, under such state, when the fishing line is wound up, the fishing line is not uniformly wound up around the spool and will be relaxed as shown in FIG. 54.
In order to obviate such defect, a prior art further provides a structure for making almost uniform the reciprocal motion of the spool shaft such as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 2-60295.
FIG. 55 shows a structure of a spinning reel of this publication, in which reference numeral 301 denotes a body casing to which a handle shaft 302 is mounted to be rotatable. Secured to the handle shaft 302 is a coupling gear 303 which is engaged with an oscillator gear 304 mounted to the body casing 301 to be rotatable. The oscillator gear 304 is formed with a slot 304a extending in the radial direction thereof, and a follow-up pin 305 penetrates the slot 304a. The follow-up pin 305 has one end engaged with a cam groove 301a formed to the body casing 301 and has another one end engaged with a slot 306a of an oscillator 306. A spool 308 is mounted to one end of a spool shaft 307. The cam groove 301a has a shape enabling the spool 308 to perform almost uniform motion.
When the handle shaft 302 is driven and rotated by a handle lever 309, the coupling gear 303 is rotated and hence the oscillator gear 304 is also rotated. Upon the rotation of the oscillator gear 304, the follow-up pin 305 penetrating the slot 304a moves along the cam groove 301a and the slot 306a. In this manner, the oscillator 306 and the spool 308 is moved reciprocally in the bilateral direction as viewed in FIG. 54 at substantially the uniform motion speed.
Furthermore, it has been considered that a clearance having a proper gap is made between the follow-up pin 305 and the cam groove 301a.
However, even in the above structure, there is provided the following problems. That is, according to the above structure, since the follow-up pin 305 inclines during its movement, the spool is not moved smoothly. The inclining motion of the follow-up pin 305 will cause wearing of the slots, the cam groove and the follow-up pin itself, thus being not advantageous. Furthermore, when an impact is applied in the spool axis direction by a falling down shock of the spinning reel, for example, the slots, the cam groove and the follow-up pin will easily damaged, also providing a problem. The inclining motion of the follow-up pin 305 will not cause a smooth rotation of the rotational frame of the spinning reel. Still furthermore, since the follow pin 305 has to be disposed inside tooth bottom of the oscillator gear 306, it is difficult to make large strokes of the oscillator and the spool.
In the arrangement provided with the clearance mentioned above, the axial movement of the spool shaft is not stable, and an undesired backlash may be caused during the movement between the spool and the reel body, also providing a problem.